Robots are currently being made to replace people doing tasks that involve a reoccurring motion. The robots offer the advantages, to name but a few of, not tiring, doing a task essentially the same way again and again, and being able to operate in environments that are inhospitable to humans.
One area that is ideal for the use of robots is the packaging of utensils, such as flatware, which is required to be essentially sterile. The end-effector of a robot can be sterilized such that the flatware handled by the end-effector is not contaminated, as could possibly happen if a person is doing the handling and packaging. Heretofore, there have been no operationally efficient systems which can handle and package flatware. One of the major problems in such systems is the ability of the end-effector to have the dexterity to effectively obtain a single spoon, fork or knife and move it to a location in the system where it is subsequently packaged. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,349 discloses a robotic order picking for filling a kit with desired parts. The kit is filled by a robot arm which opens a tray and lets parts therein fall into the kit. The arm never actually handles each individual part.
The present invention handles and packages objects such as utensils in an efficient manner with a dexterity that allows individual packages of utensils, such as a fork, spoon and knife and even a straw to be combined in a package. There is an end-effector that provides this dexterity to the system, and specifically designed bins increase the ability of the end-effector to obtain a single utensil at a given time. Moreover, the present invention pertains to a system which replaces portions of tasks of people rather than the people themselves. The invention serves to asist people in their tasks and as a result increase overall productivity. For a more general discussion of this topic, see K. G. Engelhardt (1988) "Robots in the Service of Humans: Concepts and Methods"; Proceedings of the 1988 IEEE International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Tokyo, Japan, Oct. 31 - Nov. 2, 1988.